Life brings all kinds of problems that can’t be isolated and resolved. These discussions about tradeoffs are surprising, sometimes shocking, and usually novel. This is where people live, and they don’t realize they live there.

– John Lachs, Centennial Professor of Philosophy Emeritus, Vanderbilt University

As a psychiatrist, every day shows how often we’re emotionally assaulted by rude disagreements that strain or break relationships. Most people don’t have the emotional tools to find balance. Deep Tradeoffs is like having a new, 3D way to think about everyday problems.

– W. Scott West, M.D.

 This guided journey into some really deep, thoughtful topics presents opposing, even contradictory ideas clearly and fairly. This creative technique for probing our dilemmas offers dozens of practical insights to better face each tumultuous day. A remarkable accomplishment!                     

– Mike Freeman, entrepreneur

Inspirational. Beautifully conceived, entertainingly written, and sorely needed today.

Deep Tradeoffs will help us have dinner again with good friends with whom we haven’t socialized comfortably for a long time. This book can help return civility to our culture.

– Marilyn Shields-Wiltsie, Concert Pianist

A tour de force whose audience should include senators, corporate executives, and others responsible for setting the tone of everything from select board hearings to Instagram speech.   

– David Kelley, Attorney

Deep Tradeoffs lends itself to some wonderful conversations, reflecting the author’s ability and desire to have meaty discussions with mutual respect. This is a skill much needed in today’s world.  

– Cheryl Bachelder, retired CEO

Warm, conversational, and balanced. That sense of conversation among an intriguing assortment of wits and sages from past and present makes eager to join in with my own thoughts. That creates a powerful engagement between the reader and the material. It’s a wonderful way to illuminate ideas. It’s good fodder for conversation in social situations, and a great way to bypass all the bickering among people who disagree.      

–  Jeanette Blair, homemaker

Small-minded people only see their side of the argument, whereas truly wise people see both sides and have a reason for choosing theirs. Rather than arguing like children, we can become more adult-like by understanding the tradeoffs and opposing views in all of the choices we make, seeing and appreciating the other side, and choosing our path with a full understanding of what we’re getting and what we’re giving up.  

– Chris Calton, entrepreneur

Wow! What an incredible distillation and exploration. I was struck by the integration of so many different themes, thinkers, theories while also being practical and personal. The writing style feels warm, accessible, clear and enjoyable. I’m always trying to look at nuance, complexity, and conflict with a gracious, creative lens, and this book encourages that process. This is really an amazing accomplishment — exciting, relevant, and thoughtful!

– Counselor 

Right on the mark… what’s needed in today’s world. Illuminating, thoughtful, amazing.         

– Sandra Plant

This is how we can get along with each other.

– Wilford Fuqua, retired CEO

Deep Tradeoffs are balancing acts that we perform, repeatedly, in unconscious choices among competing values. As this remarkable book shows, choices about embedded tradeoffs are unexpectedly pervasive, unrecognized, and significant in how they affect our lives.           

– David Linn, Engineer

I’ll be going back and reading this repetitively, I’m sure. I printed some of the material to keep near my phone, to temper myself as I listen and respond to other people.  

– Jet Hollander, Executive

I love how the story-like style weaves together the many dichotomies which characterize our lives, explains how we can get caught up in them (thereby perpetuating our masks), and then invites us to occasionally “walk a mile in THEIR moccasins.” Thought-provoking and riveting.

– Ray Capp, CEO

Deep Tradeoffs illuminates the realities right in front of us that we somehow overlook. It’s like seeing your nose.                                 

– Beth and Charles Sell

Timely, and germane to the challenges dividing our country. As we face one crisis after another with competing perspectives and no clear solutions, Deep Tradeoffs makes it easy, even though I don’t generally engage in political discussion, to say “Hey I read an interesting book that talks about how tradeoffs on the subjects we’re discussing provide critical context for thoroughly examining the issues.”                       

– Zane Browning, Sales Executive

Mike Hassell’s book Deep Tradeoffs is the ultimate example of the power in combining the wisdom of East and West. The defining features of Eastern philosophy are its sense of balance and dynamic equilibrium. The yin and yang symbol signifies not only what is apparent to most (such as a sense of balance, complementation, and completion of each other) but also a much deeper insight: that extreme behaviors can achieve the opposite of the desired result. Deep Tradeoffs captures the essence of the need to dynamically balance our lives.

– Ming Wang, M.D., PhD, co-founder, Common Ground Network; director, Wang Vision Institute